A client recently experienced a remote ransomware attack that resulted in Ontrack engineers being presented with one of their most extraordinary data recovery efforts to date: restoring 120 damaged HDDs within an IBM SVC Storwize v7000 system…with no backup to rely on.
After noting the critical nature of the project, Ontrack’s data recovery experts proceeded
with a comprehensive process to potentially restore the deleted data:
Ontrack then began to work closely with the client’s IT department to get hardware running on a new setup of the IBM SVC Storwize v7000 system.
Simulations were performed to see if the client’s environment could be recreated on the live hardware and if any structure could be found to possibly reconstruct the deleted data. All findings regarding the simulated structures were compared
to the structures on the original hard drives.
A positive prediction was formed based on the comparison of the structures, and Ontrack was able to move forward with the creation and modification of proprietary tools to extract functional storage systems and proceed with successful SAN system data recovery.
With an enormous challenge ahead of them, Ontrack’s data recovery experts performed extensive research on IBM’s proprietary software which resulted in engineers modifying their recovery tools to allow for the virtual rebuild of the DRAID
that was in use on the IBM system.
Figuring out the distribution patterns for DRAID proved to be the most intricate part
of the recovery process, given that all of the data sitting on the DRAID6 MDisk was combined with a number of other MDisks and dynamically allocated multiple levels of both VDisks and Dynamic Disks.
Once the array was virtually rebuilt, the Ontrack team was able to virtually rebuild the volumes. After the rebuild the team was able to generate reports to show the directory structures and layout of the recoverable data to the customer. The team then completed the IBM Storwize data recovery.
When the client initially introduced the issue, there was little hope for full (if any) recovery given the complex nature of the IBM Storwize data storage system. However, thanks to the diligence of our engineers, an unprecedented Ontrack data recovery solution for all IBM Storwize systems is now solely available via Ontrack.